Compiled by Muhammad Atif

Literary Devices

1. Simile:
A figure that makes an explicit comparison between two entities using words ‘as’ or ‘like’.
The elements compared are essentially different in nature but come together in poet’s
perception.
Example:
My love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June
My love is like a melody
So sweetly played in tune

‘I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills’ (Wordsworth)

2. Metaphor:
An implicit comparison between two objects without the linking words ‘as’ or ‘like’. It
creates thorough identification between the two giving rise to other implications as well.
‘and the hands of the clock still knock without entering’
A clock might also be identified with the brain, a procession, or the universe to say something
about rationality, inevitability or entropy. When scientists speak of our ‘genetic clock’ they
are using a striking metaphor that suggests a greater certitude than would the simile ‘our
genes are clock’.
Examples:
‘But at my back I always hear
Time’s wing’d chariot hurrying near,’ (Andrew Marvell)

‘Once did my thoughts both ebb and flow,

As passions did them move.’

3. Implied Metaphor:
Implied Metaphor is a literary device used in prose and poetry to compare two unlikely
things, with common characteristics without mentioning one of the objects of comparison.

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

‘Fire and Ice’ explores how the world would end in destruction. It presents two different
schools of thoughts; some people believe that the world will end in a fire while some say that
it will end in ice. To him, if the world will be destroyed twice, ice would be more damaging
than fire. Frost has used many implied metaphors in the poem to express his ideas. For
example, “fire” stands for the desires and “ice” represents hate. Similarly, the destruction of
the world is the metaphor for the end of relationships. It is through the appropriate use of
these implied metaphors that he has made the poem thought-provoking for the readers.

4. Epic Simile:
They are extended metaphors that go well beyond the obvious point of similarity. Typically
they have three stages;
A is compared to B
B is then considerable development in terms that clarifies A
A is returned to.
It is also known as a Homeric simile, because the Greek poet Homer is thought to have
originated the device in the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey
In the following passage from Book I of Paradise Lost, John Milton compares Lucifer’s
massive army to scattered autumn leaves:

His legions—angel forms, who lay entranc’d

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades
High over-arch’d embow’r; or scatter’d sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm’d
 Hath vex’d the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carkases
And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown,
Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.

5. Extended Metaphor:
Like epic simile, they carry the figure of speech beyond the simple phrase or line of poetry.
‘The word bites like a fish.
Shall I throw it back free
Arrowing to that sea
Where thoughts lash tail and fin?
Or shall I put it in
To rhyme upon a dish?’ (Stephen Spender)

6. Synecdoche:
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that refers to a part of something
is substituted to stand in for the whole, or vice versa. For example, the phrase “all hands on
deck” is a demand for all of the crew to help, yet the word “hands”—just a part of the crew—
stands in for the whole crew.

Example:
‘Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.’

In these lines by Thomas Gray, ‘heart’ (line 2) and ‘hands’ (line 3) are synecdoches for an
unknown person buried in the churchyard who might have been inspired to great
statesmanship or poetic achievement.

7. Metonymy:
The definition of synecdoche requires the substituted term to be either a part of the whole or a
whole standing in for a part. Metonymy, on the other hand, can refer to the substitution of a
term that is connected in any way to the original concept. For example, using “the crown” to
refer to a member of royalty is metonymy because the concept of the crown is related to
royalty. However, a crown is neither part of the royal person, nor is the royal person part of
the crown.

Example:

‘How sleep the brave who sink to rest

By all their country’s wishes blest!’

In these lines the poet, William Collins, isolates the admirable soldierly quality, bravery, to
refer to those slain in battle.

8. Personification:

A figure of speech in which an inanimate object, an abstract idea or an aspect of nature is

described as if it were a living thing.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

In this poem ‘hope’, an abstract idea, is described as a bird.

Also consider the poem ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath where the inanimate object mirror is
narrating the events in the poem.

9. Apostrophe:

This figure of speech is often used in connection with personification. Here the speaker of the
poem makes a direct address to a person, thing, or idea.

‘With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb’st at the skies.’ (Philip Sidney).

‘O moon’ here is an apostrophe.

Consider the poem ‘Death, Be Not Proud, Though Some Have Called Thee’ by John Donne.
In this poem Donne both apostrophizes and personifies death.

10. Oxymoron:

It is the joining two words with opposite meaning to create new meaning or to convey
complexity of the situation.

Consider the following line by William Blake from his poem ‘The Tyger’

‘What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?’

Here Blake links terror and beauty in ‘fearful symmetry’ to show his awe and admiration.

Example:

Bitter-Sweet

Ah, my dear angry Lord,

Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;

I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

George Herbert